Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Bringing Every Thoughts Captive To The Obedience Of Christ

This past couple weeks I had been doing some "spiritual spring cleaning". I have done a lot of scrubbing and I think some (or most) of the painful parts of cleaning is over. At least for now. We all know that cleaning is a never ending "chore", and so I must maintain the cleanliness, and someday I will once again have to do some deep cleaning as I had been doing this past weeks.

What helped me is this spiritual spring cleaning thing is the verse in the Bible that says:

Casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; - 2 Cor. 10:5 KJV

Most of the spiritual battles I have are fought inside my head (and my heart). They start as small thoughts ... then a conversation between two voices inside my head. Please do not think I am schizophrenic, I am not. But the "two voices" is how I can best describe the thing that goes on in my head. The only was to win is to bring my thoughts to the obedience of Christ. I did and I won.

Two "issues" I was able to deal this past couple of weeks were "Pride and Envy". These are tough ones to deal with because they are very subtle when they come in. They sneak in the back door. They pretend they are "with us and for us" and yet they come to destroy us. These two are not obvious in my life. None or only few of my family and friends will say I have issues with pride and envy. These nasty issues are imbedded in the heart where no one else sees, and only comes visible when exposed by the true light. These "pride and envy" are dangerous enemies in our spiritual battles and the only way to win is to fully arm ourselves with the Grace of God.

I was planning to write details of this battle that went on my mind, but I think I need to go back to bed and get some sleep. In the meantime, here is a link to an article about envy that I really like. It comes from the website "Desiring God" which is now one of my favorite websites to go to and read. John Piper's writings are truly inspirational.